the better to see you with
by engmaresh
Summary: Baatar gets into a little accident. Kuvira doesn't quite agree on the "little" part. Safety protocols do exist for a reason.


"Kuvira?"

"What now?" She didn't look up as Baatar walked into her office, not until he plunked a warped twist of metal down on the report she was going through.

The chair made a loud screech as she stood up, before it fell to the ground with a thud.

"I may have need of your bending expertise."

"Bending?" Kuvira exclaimed. She glanced down at the ruined mess of his glasses, but that was not what concerned her at all. "Your face!"

"Er, it looks worse than it feels?"

She really hoped that was so, because he looked terrible. A medic had clearly already gotten to him, since a large bandage covered half of his brow, but they hadn't been able to do much with the black eye and bruised nose except smear some ointment over it.

"I really hope this wasn't caused by a fight with Varrick," she murmured, gently taking his chin in her hands so she could better examine the cuts on his cheek.

Baatar foolishly snorted, then winced, eyes watering in pain. "Nothing so absurd. Something blew up."

"In your face? Weren't you wearing protection? And don't—"

But Baatar had already caught onto the slip, only to wince again as his eyebrow waggle disturbed another of his cuts.

"Serves you right," she muttered.

"Look, if it makes you feel any better, Corporal Seiji already chewed me out over this as they were fixing me up. I'm just here because I was hoping you could fix my glasses."

She glanced back at what was left of them. "Don't you have another pair?"

"Of lenses, yes. Frames?" He shook his head. "That's my last pair."

"Do you have to wear them?" Picking up the broken glasses, Kuvira tapped them against her palm. Even with bending, she wasn't sure they'd hold up again for very long. "Wouldn't goggles be better? You could swap out the lenses."

"No." He tchh-d disdainfully. "I'm not running around wearing goggles. I'd look ridiculous. Besides, I already wear them."

"Just not when you need them," she said dryly.

He shrugged. "Really wasn't expecting this to blow up."

She flicked him in the shoulder and walked around the desk so that she could slowly steer him backwards to the couch. "You really need to stop being so cavalier about your safety. I worry Varrick's rubbing off on you."

Baatar rolled his eyes. They were quite an unusual shade of green, and she rarely got to see them up close without glasses in the way. His right had a little brown in it, radiating away from the pupil. "You have nice eyes."

"Uh...thanks?"

There was a little resistance against her fingers as she tried to push him down, his arms coming out to grope behind him for the seat. "You really are quite blind without them, aren't you?" she observed.

"Yes," he said rather testily. "Which is why I would appreciate you fixing them as quickly as you can."

She waved the broken glasses into her hand. From the looks of it, the explosion had slammed something into them. Really, they were probably what had saved Baatar from getting his head knocked from his shoulders. Or his pretty face from getting smashed in. She turned the frame in her hands. "What exactly were you doing?"

"Performing maintenance on a mecha charging dock," Baatar huffed. "Routine stuff. I told you, it shouldn't have happened." He crossed his arms, annoyed enough that his brows furrowed and stayed that way despite the pain that likely caused him. "I bet it was Varrick again, doing one of his ridiculous experiments."

Kuvira raised an eyebrow. Baatar was often quick to point his fingers at Varrick when things didn't go his way, and she just as often ignored his complaints, but this did sound like something her eccentric Chief Scientist would do. "Do you want me to have him investigated?"

Baatar looked taken aback for a moment, then shook his head. "No, leave him to me."

"If you say so." Floating the glasses between her palms, she twisted the metal back into shape, pulling the eyepieces apart again. The bridge had to be reinforced with a little metal from her bracers, and no bending in the world would conceal the scratches in the frame. But it would do for now, and keep Baatar from bumping into things until a new pair—several new pairs, perhaps an entire crateful—arrived.

"Are you done?" he asked as she walked around the couch and sat down on the other end.

"Do you have the lenses?" She held out her hand as he dug around inside a pocket and produced to two thick pieces of glass.

"Right one," he held one out first, "left one."

"You can tell?"

"I can feel the curvature."

She snapped them one by one back into the frame. "I wonder…"

"Wonder what?"

"What you might have been like as a bender? If you can hardly see. Would you have been like Toph?"

Baatar shrugged. "Maybe? Would I still wear glasses? Probably. I've had grandmother yell in my ear often enough when flying, I guess I'd still want to see with my eyes if I could."

"Besides," he added turning towards her. It was a little funny how he wasn't quite able to meet her eyes, his gaze a little unfocused as though he couldn't fully make out where they were. "If I relied only on my feet, would I be able to see your beautiful face?"

"Are you even sure you're looking at me right now?" she teased. "I could be Varrick for all you know."

"I'm not that blind," he grumbled. "Nor am I deaf. And I'd never mistake you for Varrick. Or Zhu Li. Or any other woman for that matter."

"You flatter me," she said in dry a tone as she could muster, ignoring the ridiculous twinge in her chest. But at least Baatar coloured too at the sentiment, which made her chuckle.

"Are you done? Can I have my glasses back?"

"Just a moment." She smoothed the metal carefully so that the lenses sat right, then gave the whole thing one more lookover.

"I think it's fine now."

"Good. Give them here."

"Wait."

"Kuvira."

She leaned forward, smiling at the sight of him going crossed-eyed as he tried to track her movements before he gave up and closed his eyes. His lips were chapped and caught a little against her own, and he tasted faintly metallic when she swiped her tongue between them. He winced slightly when her nose bumped into his and she pulled back.

"You know, I shouldn't give these back until you've rested. You look awful."

"Kuvira, I swear—"

"Come," she tugged on his sleeve, coaxing him to lie back. "Lie down."

"What? Why?"

"You just had a near death accident, you should rest."

"I can rest in my cabin."

"No, stay here with me." She patted her lap, and then again a little louder, so that he could hear the smack instead of see it.

Baatar wasn't the kind of man to turn down an opportunity like that—unless perhaps, some kind of engineering breakthrough was close—but he looked rather confused as he let her pull him down and arrange his head over her thighs.

"Why?" he asked again. A little too tall to fully stretch out on the couch, his legs flailed as he tried to decide whether to drape them over the armrest or curl them up onto the seat.

"You really did have an accident." Gently and very, very lightly, she ran the tip of her finger down his nose. "Forgive me if I'd like to have you a little close after that."

He grinned, sliding a hand up to grab the lapel of her uniform. "So you'd definitely miss me if I'm gone."

"Don't joke about that." She flicked his ear, but allowed herself to be pulled down so that she could kiss him again.

After they'd broken apart, she carefully slipped the glasses over his face. "Are they all right?"

He blinked, adjusting to the new lenses. Under their reflective gleam, the green-brown of his eyes appeared a little desaturated. A slow smile spread across his face. "Hey there," he murmured, cupping her cheek, stroking a calloused thumb down the line of her jaw. "Missed you."

This made her laugh, and she bent over again to press her lips to his unbruised cheek. "Dork."

"Mmmm." Behind the fixed glasses, his eyes were hooded.

"See," Kuvira whispered, waving her hand at her desk to summon a sheaf of reports. Clipping them together with metal binders had been a genius idea, if she did say so herself. "You do need rest."

"Ugh," muttered Baatar, but he did shift around to make himself more comfortable, tucking his hands under his arms, and rolling onto his side so he could pull his feet up. Kuvira bent his glasses off his face, and set them carefully on the desk. Wouldn't do to break them again.

"Do promise me you'll be more careful next time."

The answer she received was a low, steady exhale. Kuvira sighed, then she looked down at Baatar's sleeping face. His bruised eye was hidden in her lap, and the side of his head facing her was relatively unbruised. She turned her gaze to the stack of papers in her hand, then very carefully, rested them on his face. Baatar slept on, unperturbed. She went back to her reading.


End file.
